The Wheel Fell Off!

Are these aftermarket wheels or stock Ferrari wheels? If aftermarket, did the shop install new bolts in whatever-sized was required to get proper thread engagement on the hub? The wheel manufacturer (I assume) would have supplied bolts or made a recommendation.

Stock 360 bolts are 52mm long from the end of the threads to the start of the conical head. From what I have seen, most aftermarket wheels require significantly longer bolts to gain proper thread engagement.

If stock wheels, indeed, my guess is improper installation.

 

Holy ****e!!

Thankfully that's all that's happened considering what could've happened. I've come to the sad conclusion that you have to check any work that's done on your car, house, body, etc...

 

First and the most important thing is you and your wife were not injured. Did you take any pictures or call the cops to have a documented record of the event?

I would be furious and I know going forward I would never drive a car away from a place without having someone check the torque on the lug nuts and/or bolts first, regardless of what the place says.

Have the car checked to make sure nothing was damaged and if there was damage you will need to have the shop make good for any repairs, probably not to be done by them.

Again the most important thing is you are okay.

 

I had the same thing happen to me the day after Xmas last year (thankfully not on the Dino). I was on a city street and thankfully I was able to slow down as the car began to feel "wobbly". It was the left rear wheel on a Fiat. The wheel came completely off and the aluminum brake drum was resting on the ground. When I checked the other three wheels, they were all loose! I'd had new wheels and tires mounted about 4 or 5 months previously, and my mechanic had subbed the work out to some tire shop, so I didn't pursue it (though I made sure my guy heard about it). The wheel was ruined from contact with the brake drum on the inside as it came off. Luckily the only other damage was one stripped thread in the drum (Fiats use lug bolts) that I was able to re-tap.

Ever since, I always check lug nut torque with a torque wrench (75-85 ft./lbs.) after every service if wheels have been mounted or rotated, and every six months or so after that.

You don't mention it, but I assume that you checked the other three wheels. I would definitely let the installer know, and double check to be absolutely certain that there's no damage to the wheels, especially the lug nut seats. As stated above, also have the suspension, brake, etc. thoroughly checked out on that corner.

I can testify that it's a scary experience. We were both lucky that it didn't occur at high speed. Good luck!

 

The other lucky thing with me was that as I was standing there wondering what to do, within about 3 minutes, along comes a good Samaritan who just happened to have a floor jack in the back of his pick-up! We were able to get the jack under the frame and steal one lug bolt off each of the other wheels so that I could drive the 5 or 6 miles home slowly and carefully.

 

I too have had this issue with other vehicles over the years after listening to loose lugnuts in a hubcap on way home from getting tires and finding loose lug nuts/bolts after tire service. My brother gor a front end alignment done on a Fiat Spyder and on way home front suspension fell off where they had not tightened the bolts after changing shims.
I now carry a torque wrench with me and check the wheel bolt torque in the parking lot before leaving and with aluminum wheels again after 20 and 50 miles.
Frank

 

most important thing - nobody was hurt.


On the wheel shop, if it was done 100 miles ago, they are going to deny deny deny. They will say it was right when it left, and how can you prove otherwise?

It may be one of those things where you need to let the insurance handle this. Try to get the wheel shop's insurance to cover it, but i think if they don't agree, you will have a hard time forcing them to pay up.

Luckily the damage is probably not all that bad, and I would be very surprised if there was additional damage to frame/suspension/components beyond what is obviously visible.

 

Having been asked the question before, I still cannot find a decent tire and wheel man in CT (I know who he was). Hopefully your installer will make this right but your never going to recover the brain cells lost in the initial anguish.

Good luck....and I wish I had a recommendation for you.

Lane

 

Glad you are okay.

This is all too common.

I had new rims put on my car about 5 months ago...A couple days afterwards I just felt something was wrong right before I pulled onto the highway.

I pulled over and discovered ALL of the lugs were loose... they didnt tighten any of them.

 

Where abouts are you in CT? I have a guy in Bristol that I will only let him do my tires.

 

Good thing nothing happened to the both of you and the car. I had the same problem with one of my other cars (not my Ferrari).

 

I don't know how accurate it is, but I've heard that you should re-torque the wheels after a few miles of "seating in" after they've been remounted.

I've been following that advice for some time.

Of course, when I let the shop install wheels, I usually take my own torque wrench along, rather than rely on the setting on their air impact guns.


My father had a wheel sheer off on an old Plymouth (which used to have left handed lugs on one side), and I've been a bit anal about getting the wheel nuts properly seated ever since.

There's a bit of bevel to wheel nuts (or studs, in the case of Ferraris). If you just torque wheel nuts down on the surface of the wheel, the rim can rub against the studs and wear through them. The bevel holds the wheel precisely in place, with only lateral stress on the lugs.

(That's what happened to my father's car -- the wheel nuts weren't seated correctly, and the lugs sheared off. We had to leave the car up on several jack stands while all the hubs had new lugs installed.)

 

are the wheel bolts for your car longer in the front than the rear (as i believe they are on my dino ) ? if so maybe the shop switched the fronts for the backs causing the problem. good luck. dan

 

Same thing started to happen to me when i put my new QV reproduction wheels on.

I tightened them and took the car for a drive and the car felt wobbly. The next day two of my lugnuts where in my driveway and must have come out just as i was pulling in (talk about lucky). I retorqued and luckiliy never had another problem.

 

A ferrari owner and I were racing on a local track where we hit triple digit speeds sub 150mph drifiting into a sweeper. Once we got off track he asked me about a front end wobble he had. I shook his wheel looked fine. I jacked up has car found loose suspension bolts which were just fixed by a race shop putting on a big brake kit for his car. After I tightened back his suspension I put the wheel back on only to notice how his screw in lugstuds were curiously all different lengths. I took the wheel back off to find that some of the lugstuds were hanging on by a couple of threads. Sure the wheel lugnut could be torqued but only gripping on a couple threads! Even pros can be asleep at the switch and at the speeds we travel racing we could die. Anyway some of you ferrari guys have converted lugbolts to screw-in studs and lugbolts. This is a very convenient thing to do especially if you have changed to aftermarket wheels and or race and change tires often. But watchout and properly watch the placement of those screw in studs. This is not an issue with other hub designs that have press-in studs.

 

If you have ceramic brakes check the rotor for damage since the rotor was resting on the rim. A ceramic rotor would most likely have been damaged.

 

Yes, 100%----Just to be safe---I check my tire pressure once a month and throw the torque wrench on my wheel bolts every other month....

 

Thankfully:

A) You're okay. The outcome could be very different with wheels falling off.

B) The wheel didn't hurt someone else. Bouncing down the highway, people get hurt.

C) You're not this guy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4m41viy4I

 

Read the fine print.

The last three wheel shops I used all stated at the bottom of their forms that the customer is responsible for re-torquing the lugs once they leave the shop.

 

When I saw the thread title, I immediately thought of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg

CW